esrosedotblog

I have always believed that Elizabeth Warren was a pain in the ass.

A moralistic finger pointer who resides in a white castle high above our heads. A harridan without portfolio.

Now that she has gotten herself elected as a Senator from Massachusetts she has grown more shrill.

Now it seems she thinks of herself as the Executive Branch enforcer.

She reminds me of an irritating schoolmarm.

The Problem With Elizabeth Warren

Here, Roger Lowenstein takes he to task. In fact a kind of take-down.

It is good to see.

People of the Warren stripe have a bit too much fake humility for my taste.

I would like to see where and how she gets campaign contributions.

I just hate the "holier than thou" crowd.

They usually have something to hide.

Someday the people with torches and pitchforks might come for this whiner and provoker.

Boy she pisses me off. The ultimate scold.

Labels: democratic whack jobs

Our wounded man is Bernie Sanders.

Eminently unqualified for the job but persistent in his belief that he could do something if he got a chance.

Look, Bernie. You are too old, too left and too late.

I admire his spunk at his age. He has a lot more than me. All that electioneering crap.

But he has to do it.

Down from the clouds and into the street.

I do not want what he is peddling either.

I have seen this old New England righteousness before only in a different style and perhaps a different leaning.

He is a hand wringer and a sob sister.

I have nothing against Socialists. It is just that there is not one of them that has any idea of how to run the machinery of government.

They are caught up in political theory, their religion.

Not unlike the deeply religious who are so stuck on the piety that they can't do anyone any good and see a world of sin rather than a world of opportunity.

So I do not want him either.

I would rather go with another oldster who knows how to do it. Joe Biden. I am still holding his cup ready. It holds my toothbrush for now. It may yet get another outing. But he says "no". But I looked in his eye and saw a reservation.

Labels: democratic whack jobs, Democrats, lefty fringe, professional left

The liberal wolves are howling over the NSA policies. I am with Feinstein.

Feinstein’s Support for N.S.A. Defies Liberal Critics and Repute

She thinks Snowden acts are treason too. Me and Diane.

Let me tell you about me.

I am a progressive or like to think so. I am also a liberal.

And I will use those words out loud and repeat them and repeat them.

Now, let me add a little phrase.

I am a progressive and a liberal and I stand as a supporter of a strong military and, yes, intelligence system.

I find nothing dissonant between these positions. None.

I do have to ask myself why as I seem to often stand alone.

Let us skip the crap about loving America. I think we all do.

I grew up in the beginning, middle and end of WWII. I lived through "duck and cover", the cold war and intransigent foes who had no limitation on their acts of espionage against the US, anytime, anywhere.

I honor Roosevelt and Truman.

I volunteered to be in the USArmy ROTC. No scholarship. No support other than the belief that I had an obligation and I wanted to fill it in the best way.

My education as a "soldier", albeit, a kind of soft shouldered one in the Quartermaster Corps, included a healthy dose of belief in the military system, the military point of view and a keen sensitivity that the US does, indeed, have committed enemies who must, at least, be neutralized.

I learned about good intelligence being a ward against some of the horrors of war. The ability to see and hear the enemy or potential enemy's plans, more often than not, could make the difference between winning, or worse, bogging down in endless combat. Indeed, good intel can forestall combat and save lives entirely on its own.

I am for the last, hope for the first and abhor the idea of the second. The bog down.

I am inspired by my father who hated the war but went to serve. He did not have to. He risked his life. He lived, as did we, a terrible period of deprivation and hardship to win WWII. I learned to honor the service of such men.

Yeh, I know, the platitude about honoring but it is empty when the idea is betrayed by soft thinking. The peacenik. The hippie. The person who is happy to sit behind the lines and criticize.

We liberals mock the conservatives who are hawks for war who did not serve their time. Look inward. There are many liberals who dodged the draft, stood back when they found themselves facing the reality of life in the modern world and so on. Armchair critics.

Another thing.

I also have some strong dissonant beliefs about such things as atomic warfare and its horrible necessity. I believe that Harry Truman did the right thing.

Close up, I can say, that if he had not, I would likely be an orphan. Further back, I believe the war would have dragged on and on. The Japanese were a zealous and skillful people.

Dresden? Yes. I respond with "London".

But those are old times, old wars, old conflicts, old enemies.

Here we are now.

Do you think for a minute that Hamas or the remnants of the Bin Laden crowd or, worse, the scary individual actors we have seen come on the battlefield, do we really believe that an "ethical war" or peaceful acts will neutralize them?

I respect people who differ with me on these points. Enough not to stoop to the name calling they indulge in.

The people who think that Snowden is a hero, that Assange is a selfless true believer, that Bradley Manning is a saint, ought to take an aspirin and settle down. They need to become a little more cynical or whatever it is, a little less rabid, and think this through.

Do I trust the government unreservedly? Of course not.

But I do trust FISA and the system of overview.

I am happy to have the questions being raised out there for us all to think about.

But partisan thinking is partisan thinking and I choose not to have someone who has no experience in these things talking for me.

I voted for and support Obama in the belief that when he heard the news in his early days of briefing, he made some good "liberal" judgments about what he heard. So did his people.

I trust my country to make the right choices even when they are "wrong". I vote for America.

There are many many arguments to be made and heard about all of this. Ancillary discussions which lead to twisted paths which are difficult to find in the forest/tree muddle.

I suppose I should also say that, on this and not a lot of other things, I support Feinstein's commitment.

Labels: democratic whack jobs

DOUBLE TALK

Today's oped page in the NYTimes is adorned with an incomprehensible mishmash by Julian Assange, the slightly cracked Wikileaks guy.

The Banality of Google's Don't Be Evil

Try to read this.

It is a view into a troubled mind.

Phantoms lurk everywhere.

My impression is that the Times took this as is and just printed it outright as a way to see into this guy's head.

I suppose, given the size of his ego, that he might have demanded they not edit. But the result is the same.

Here, laid out in line after line is the paranoia and obsessions of a guy who has lived too long in his own aura.

The "banality" headline is a play on Hannah Arendt's line about the Eichmann trial in 1963 and Google's "don't do evil" slogan. A little strong in this case, I would say.

I think there is at least a little daylight between Larry Page and Sergey Brin and Eichmann.

Well, lets admit he does have one thing right. Google talk is almost as incomprehensible as Assange's but in many fewer words. I just think, for the most part, that the Google people's belief in the inherent good of their works is mostly naive and self serving.

Assange on the other hand is so complex in his rants and invective that he makes no sense at all.

I have watched this guy. He fits a pattern of ranters from way back. Actually, I believe, an anarchist.

This is in preparation of our minds for the trial this week of Pfc. Bradley Manning, the little guy who got caught in the gears between Assange's dirty tricks and US secrecy.

Assange is also in confinement or asylum as he awaits results in his Swedish charges of rape. It is kind of messed up just like this tirade.

Labels: democratic whack jobs

THE PROFESSIONAL LEFT

A lot of lefties make money out of being irate over Bradley Manning.

Look, he is on trial for treason.

He has pled guilty to many of the charges against him.

Yes, he is gay, but it is time that we accept there are bad people who happen to be gay. It is part of "the revolution".

Not to say that he is guilty but he has pled to releasing secret docs which are said to endanger real people all over the world.

So I was shocked but not surprised to see that some genius at the San Francisco Gay Pride committee had announced that this weasel Manning would be the grand marshal? Excuse me?

Now, gladly, I see that "they" have retreated and pulled this coal out of the fire. Also glad the outrage was sufficient for them to do so.

Bradley Manning Won't Be SFO Pride Grand Marshall.

Good.

Had they gone ahead with this hare brained scheme it would be an embarrassment for all gay people even the ones stupid to want to do it in the first place.

There is no place for this kind of controversy in the movement.

Over and over certain groups inject leftist of the left crackpot ideas into gay politics.

Glad to see that some faces are red and some hands got slapped.

Bradley Fucking Manning. I can't believe it.

But then I can. Same old shit, new box to put it in.

Labels: democratic whack jobs

I LOST AT THE COMMENTS

I usually stay away from the comment section of the political, or any other for that matter, blogs but I got caught today.

Some guy on Daily Kos got onto Obama today about his new budget which will "destroy" social security. I guess he isn't a socialist after all.

Some days I am ashamed to be a progressive or a liberal or whatever.

So I went to see if others' reaction to this post were as negative as mine.

No. They were worsed.

I finally ran into a couple of people who were balanced, saw the Obama strategy as a strategy and understood negotiation as a process.

So I wrote this

I am with you David54. And a few others who have the courage to call some of this insanity out. I read the comments on this post and come away with the strong feeling that us so called "progressives" can foam at the mouth and be a'ginners just as much as those right wing nuts. Not a grasp at all of the political process or the art and science of hard ball. The Obamas are not angels but they are running their game with a considerable skill which somehow the ranters choose to ignore. I am on SS incidentally. I don't much like compromises with MY entitlements either. And yes, I know all about the national debt and SS role in it. I also know the debt has halved in the last months and I also know that there has to be a way to paint the GOoPers into their ugly littler corner. A little bait is a good thing guys. Otherwise we are the same as them. It is as bad to be all in for some fixed position on one side as the other.

Labels: democratic whack jobs

ARROGANCE GETS YOU HUBRIS

So this happened. Joe Scarborough beat the shit out of Paul Krugman in a "debate" on the Charlie Rose show.

There is a leftover bit of pollyanna stuff here. An attempt to find a bit of silver in the lining of the dark clouds.

Who's (the) Left's Television Team?

Well, not Krugman.

I have a long standing resentment toward the entitled, smug and thoroughly know it all Krugman.

I can never forgive him for his cheesy nay-saying about Obama's ability to fix the economy back in the early days of his first term.

Paul always had a better idea, never missed a snide remark, made cutting references to "amateurs" and so on.

In short, I found and still find him to be an insufferable dick.

Even Krugman admits that Joe Scarborough cleaned his clock.

I like Joe S. even when I disagree with him. He gives the benefit of the doubt, he is skeptical of much of his own party's bullshit and says so.

He has a sense of humor.

One has the impression that Krugman has years of being the odd man out, the unpopular geek and he is still getting even.

A dick with a Nobel is still a dick.

Thanks Joe, good job setting him on his ass.

Here, Krugman accuses Scarborough of going ad hominem which is, of course, him going ad hominem. Whiner, prig and phony. Paul Krugman.

To the article? Krugman is a shitty member of our television team.

Labels: democratic whack jobs, Republicans

PRO AND CON

Snoop Lion's analysis of the election. I got this from David Frum. Frum says it is unlikely to move swing voters. I say that we don't know but in the meantime it is hilarious to think about.

Find out more about Snoop Lion here.

Basically it is Snoop Dogg in a new wrapper. He says "reincarnated".

I have always been in his court. I remember the web machine that took everything you wrote and put it in Snoopese.

Only the Snoop would remind us that we really should not have a President whose name is "Mitt".

Labels: democratic whack jobs, Re-election of Barack Obama

WE AREN'T ALL THAT DIFFERENT

Kevin Drum fesses up to his obsession with the George W Bush National Guard story.

How long ago was that?

Today, Kev brings it all up again because someone else has and his starter got wound up.

Bush National Guard Story Lives

Take a look at the comments. Full of the same kind of trivial conspiracy rehash that we went through in 2000.

This is a lot like the Republican whack jobs I love to mock.

Look. A lot of guys used the National Guard to hide out in the Viet era.

Before that a lot of guys used ROTC and other programs too do the same thing. The Reserves.

I have a story as good as Georgies as it happens. It is just that I didn't run for President or anything else that looked into my dereliction of duty.

I managed to scam my way out of going to the Berlin crisis.

Am I contrite about it? Do I feel bad? No.

No one was dying in that scrape at all but two years of career and family going down the shitter wasn't worth it. Period.

Bush did his slipping when the 'Nam thing was turning down.

I know. There are grades of malingering but he didn't have a monopoly on it by any means.

Labels: bushie, democratic whack jobs, republican whack jobs